Wish upon the Stars chapter 886

We DID end up having dinner early. Callie was awake when we got back, and she raised an eyebrow at our new friend, but didn’t say anything else. Belsara was practically glowing with smugness over how quickly I’d gotten the Animal (he tried to get us to call him Mal, but Abel informed him it would be too confusing given Mel’s name, and told him it was Animal or ‘Annie”) on our side.

She mentioned having a few other connections nearby, but the Animal was a better source, and he informed us that we should leave for one of the spoke cities as soon as possible.

Apparently, the layout of the D-rank zone was a lot like the outside of a wheel, with spoke cities about halfway through set at equidistant intervals along the central belt. There were actually spoke cities in both directions from the equator, all of them the primary locations of the major forces in the D-rank zone, and the nearest one was Yettin.

We were all sitting at dinner as Animal filled us in on this, amazed by exactly how much the man could eat. Apparently they hadn’t been feeding him much, because he was demolishing several hug tubs of pork between sentences, and everyone looked a little sick at the sight.

“Can you chew and THEN speak?” Demanded my sister with a queasy look. “Or chew at all. I swear you just unhinged your jaw like a snake for that last one.”

Animal swallowed hard, then belched. “Apologies, friends,” he said with an apologetic smile. “My mass is quite a bit more formidable than it appears. They minimized my caloric intake in order to weaken my combat power. I was able to conserve energy by remaining mostly sedentary, but simply holding this form consumes a sizable amount of energy. I’m afraid I’m quite famished.”

Bethy clicked her tongue sympathetically. But she was clearly excited about this information. “Being hungry sucks. I get hungry all the time. Then I eat stuff. That totally checks out. You’re eating stuff cuz you’re hungry, but are you going to turn into that stuff? You ate a bunch of pork. Are you a pig now? How do you turn back into a people? Do you have to eat a people? Do you have to do that every time you turn into something else? Do you keep people parts on you to snack? Are they fingers? Is that where finger sandwiches come from?”

Her tirade was all spat out in a single breath, but it was cut off by Chelsea putting a hand over her mouth. My sister shot Animal an apologetic look. “Sorry. Bethy doesn’t really have a filter. You don’t have to answer any of that.”

“Um, yes he does,” I cut in. “Specifically the cannibalism thing. Because if you eat people, that’s going to need to stop immediately.”

I hadn’t even considered that. Trust Bethy to come up with the most disturbing possible explanation for any given ability. It was a good question though, even if I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

He chuckled. “No, I don’t eat people. I do have SOME standards. They taste terrible.”

None of us laughed at that, except Bethy, who dissolved into some very worrying giggles. Rolling my eyes at what I was ninety percent sure was theatrics, I raised an eyebrow at Animal. “So, we’re probably going to be getting a task soon, a way to earn more points, and if you want off this hellhole when we leave, we’re going to need to maximize those gains. If you were going to have a big contest near here, where would it be?”

“Probably the abyss,” he said after a moment of thought. “It’s on the way to Yettin, and it would definitely make things difficult.”

I felt my stomach tighten at the term. “The Abyss?” I asked worriedly. “Like…something to do with the Void?” The last thing we needed was to deal with those interdimensional bastards right now.

“Not like that,” he assured me. “The Abyss is just a giant canyon. It’s a few miles wide and so deep you can’t see the bottom. It’s crisscrossed with strands of web that form paths between the two sides. No one is sure what MADE the webs, but there are caves honeycombing the cliffs on either side, and the webs run between the entrances.”

I frowned. That sounded like EXACTLY the kind of place the WCP would plan a trial for. “What’s in the caves? Is it giant spiders?”

“Surprisingly no,” he said with a laugh. “No one has ever seen a giant spider in the abyss. Which is good, because to make webs the size of those walkways, it would need to be the size of a small town. And the town wouldn’t be that small. Whatever made those, it isn’t D-rank, so we THINK it got pushed further inland when the zones were being formed. Or it was S-rank, in which case it’s dead.”

“Well, that’s both good and bad,” I said brightly. “No spiders, is great, but what’s in the caves then? It’s probably like goblins or something, right?”

He shook his head. “Kobolds,” he corrected.

“Of course,” I sighed. “I don’t suppose THEY have moral objections to eating human flesh?”

“Not to my knowledge,” he grimaced. “In fact, as far as I know they’re quite enamored with the stuff. The natural barrier is one of the reasons Yettin is so impossible to attack. The city is on the other side of the cliffs, and the abyss itself is more crescent shaped than a straight gash in the ground. It provides Yettin a defensive line on three sides. The city is built in a wedge shape too, so any attack has to split around a point directly opposite the midpoint of the abyss wall.”

I nodded along. I didn’t know what the event would be, but any information was helpful. I hoped we wouldn’t need to do another siege, but it WAS possible. I suspected not though. If I had to guess it would be something more like a maze. My relatives valued novelty quite a bit. Repeating the same trial twice in a row seemed beneath them.

Benny sighed from where he sat nearby with Celine. “Giant spiders, kobolds, why is all the unpleasant shit only showing up when we arrive on the scene. I bet you didn’t run into anything like this on Rackham.”

“Just an evil horned demon ghost that ate people and wore their skins,” I said dryly. “Really, the whole place was pretty much the ideal vacation. I almost bought a commemorative hat.”

Bella shuddered. “Ugh, that thing was terrible,” she hissed. “And super gross. I hope I never seen anything like that temple again. Easily the scariest place I’ve ever been. And the monster itself almost killed us.”

“It did not almost kill us,” I told my apprentice exasperatedly. “We were in almost no danger. I wasn’t going to let you get murdered for no reason. It would make me look terrible. I’m a GOOD mentor, unlike some people who shall not be named. Because Bethy keeps forgetting what their name is and coming up with random pseudonyms that start with the letter A.”

Abel glared at me. “I get no respect,” he complained. “My training has kept you alive AND got you married. You think you’d be good enough for that one if you didn’t have your soul bond? You should be thanking me.”

That drew a laugh from Belsara, and when we turned to look at her, she smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, it’s just…I like the way you interact with your people. My mom always said, you can tell a lot about what kind of leader someone is by how they treat their subordinates. Most candidates are smug little shits who bow and scrape to their betters. Even the elites are usually just high and mighty pricks who barely acknowledge their people. I feel better about this particular alliance after seeing you all interact.”

I shrugged. “I never got the smugness. Being a candidate isn’t some kind of ticket to fame and power. If anything, it’s a pain in the ass. Pure support, with no real way to impact the situation? If I didn’t have a second ability I’d be fucked. No way I’d have gotten this far. And same goes for my friends. If they didn’t have my back, I never would have made it here.”

“It’s true,” Abel admitted. “He’d be lost without us, but more importantly, he’s not a total ass. I wouldn’t have joined up if he was, no matter how many wishes he offered. Real powerhouses don’t need to barter for power. They TAKE it.”

Benny snorted. “Speak for yourself old man, I personally LOVE the wish power. I’d be here either way, but I won’t pretend it’s not convenient. I wouldn’t have grown this fast without it.”

We chatted like that for the rest of the meal (we had Beef Wellington) and then retired to our rooms to sleep. We put out a message to everyone else on the team, letting them know to gather at the city wall at the crack of noon. Then we all headed to sleep. 

When Callie and I got back up to the room, I crashed onto the bed with a groan. “I should have napped like you,” I groaned. “Curse me and my proactive approach to faction growth.”

“Yes,” she said dryly. “Because that’s what you’re known for. Forward thinking growth strategies and exciting investment opportunities in the field of faction development. I’m surprised you don’t have any recursion for that yet.”

“Your sarcasm is noted,” I sniffed. “And not appreciated. How do you know I don’t have recruitment recursion. I was able to recruit Animal easily enough. Everyone loves to work with me.”

She giggled, flopping down onto the bed next to me. “Yes dear,” she said through a wide grin. “You’re an excellent employer and everyone knows it. But seriously, thanks for letting me sleep.”

“Always,” I told her with a smile. She sat up, scooting up the bed, and lifted my head, setting it in her lap as she removed my mask. Her fingers skimmed down to rub my temples, working away the tension that had built up over the course of the day. The shower had helped, but this was so much better.

As if hearing my desire to unwind, Callie started chatting. Nothing serious or important, just little things. Stuff she’d seen at the shops when she was training, things she’d seen and done while we were apart. She just rubbed my temples and talked, the low hum of her voice soothing me as I drifted off to sleep.

In the morning I woke up refreshed and energetic, and Callie was snuggled against me happily. I slipped out of bed, going to find her some breakfast, and then brought her a plate of eggs and bacon with a jam covered breakfast muffin and a cup of coffee. She moaned happily as she woke up, devouring the meal in silence as we sat together. We’d slept in, so by the time we finished it was time to head out.

We met up with everyone else at the city walls as agreed, and we did a quick headcount to make sure we didn’t leave anyone behind. Then, once that was done, we all set out from Schvitz in the direction Animal had indicated.

Sure enough, about halfway there, we received another message from the competition supervisors.

“Announcement: The next task begins. Cross the abyss by any means necessary. Beware the dwellers in the dark, as well as your other competitors. Before crossing, acquire the golden spheres from within the cliffside caves. One sphere equals one point. Spheres will be collected on arrival in Yettin.”

I grimaced, staring at the slowly massing army of people gathering in small groups at the edge of the giant chasm I could see in the distance. Great. There were way more than had been involved in the last trial. This was going to suck.